DEFENDERS of the Prime Minister's policy of engagement with the Bush administration have argued that Mr Blair's is a moderating influence.
His emphasis on the importance of making progress in resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, it is claimed, will nudge the US administration into putting pressure on the Israelis to make concessions.
The reality is nothing of the sort. The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, has restated his intention to continue building a so-called security fence between Israel and the occupied territories on the West Bank and Gaza. He has also confirmed that Israel will continue to build state-sponsored settlements in the West Bank.
The fence is an abomination, but even if you accepted the rationale for its existence, what possible excuse can there be for what amounts to the theft of large tracts of Palestinian land?
In routing the fence, the Israelis have built it entirely on Palestinian land, tracts of which have been annexed, splitting villages and farmhouses from schools, clinics and fields.
The Israelis have clearly not abandoned their goal for a greater Israel.
Bush and his Zionist coterie in Washington are only giving lip service to the two-state solution. Israel will continue to provoke the Palestinians into violence and US support for a Palestinian state will evaporate in the context of Bush's so-called 'war on terrorism'.
And what can Tony Blair do about that? Absolutely nothing.
PETER NIELSEN,
Worcester.
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